National Adoption Month starts in just two weeks! And we want to share with you what we have planned for this special month dedicated to adoption and advocating for children who need families around the world.
In the past decade, Holt’s focus has shifted. We now almost exclusively seek loving families for children with special needs. That’s where the need is today, and our forthcoming National Adoption Month campaign reflects this need.
Right now, Holt has far more referrals for children than we have families to adopt them… especially from China and Korea. Older children, children with special needs and boys need advocates in particular!
In 2012, this little boy’s family saw his story featured on the Holt blog.
For the entire month of November, you’ll want to be sure to follow Holt’s blog for stories about children who need families, educational posts to dispel myths and answer frequently asked questions, and candid stories from veteran adoptive families.
AND most importantly, National Adoption Month is all about ADVOCACY. We share the stories and you help take our message to the world via social media, your church and friends! Social media — with the help of adoption advocates like you — has the power to change a child’s life! We’ve seen its tremendous impact again and again:
• In 2012, we posted Willow’s story on Facebook, expressing the urgent need to find her a family. In a matter of hours, Willow’s story was shared more than 1,000 times, and today her family is on their way to bring her home.
• We featured “Natalie” on our blog in 2011. When a woman in California saw her story on our blog, she contacted our waiting child program. Natalie came home to her family in 2012.
• Also in 2012, Holt posted a story about “Hudson,” a toddler from India with lower limb paralysis. Beth Schwamberger saw this post and contacted Holt’s waiting child program immediately. Hudson, now Holden, came home to the Schwambergers last year.
We hope these and the upcoming National Adoption Month stories inspire you! Maybe they’ll even inspire you to start your own adoption journey, and what better time than in a month dedicated to adoption! Click here to start your adoption!
As a sneak peek to what we have in store next month, read about the Walsh family’s journey to their son Eli….
Our first child was a bit of a surprise. We were contacted by a family privately about adopting a baby girl that would be born a month later. We scrambled! In just under a week, we had a hand-me-down crib, clothes and a dresser, a highchair and just about every large toy we could fit in our house. We welcomed our sweet baby girl home on September 29, 2010.
As time marched on, we started to have the desire to adopt again but wondered where to start. Our last child seemed to almost find us. Although my husband and I do not consider ourselves infertile, adoption has always seemed like the right way to build our family. However, knowing where to begin was overwhelming. With our first adoption, we knew the child we were going to adopt and then contacted an adoption agency to help us with the paperwork and legal side. But now we needed to contact an adoption agency to help us find our child. We knew we had some decisions to make. Would we adopt domestically or internationally? If internationally, what agency? Which country? We also had to look at each country’s requirements.
In the meantime, our neighbor’s daughter, a sweet teenage girl, would frequently ride her scooter to our house to spend time with our baby and me. She and her brother were adopted from Korea when they were babies. We absolutely loved this family, and the mother often encouraged my husband and I to explore adopting from Korea. So that’s what we did, moving one step at a time in faith.
In May 2012, we submitted the first of our paperwork to Holt International’s Korea program, noting that we were open to adopting a child with special needs. Our neighbor’s children had special needs, and they were amazing and awesome kids. My husband also uses a wheelchair since a car accident in 1992, and I work as a teacher for the deaf, so the idea of special needs was nothing new for our family.
In October, we got the call! We had a referral. We rushed to the computer and opened up the sweetest picture – our son! We laughed at the chubby cheeks that looked just like our daughter’s, and we read the extensive history the Korea program had carefully gathered. He was 8 months old, born premature. An echocardiogram showed that he had a small hole in his heart, which would likely close on its own. An MRI had also raised concerns about his brain, however documentation showed this was no longer a concern. We reviewed the medical history with a few doctors and felt very confident about his health. We were smitten.
Time marched on. The adoption process slowed in Korea and the country’s adoption requirements changed. Although we loved our son, who we planned to name Eli, it was hard to feel confident that he was really going to come home. We made the most of our wait by preparing care packages for him. They were our lifeline and how we felt connected to him. We put together package after package of small toys, clothes, family pictures and even a very goofy homemade video of our family.
One of the altered Korea adoption requirements was that we would now have to make two trips to Korea instead of one, and that my husband and I would both have to travel for the first trip. When we heard this news, I became worried. I emailed Holt and asked how many families had gone through the Korean adoption process with one parent in a wheelchair. None. I now wondered if God would close this door. We prayed. We prayed every night for our son and for his foster family, not knowing what the outcome would be.
Our court date in Korea was scheduled for May 16, 2014. Each milestone in our adoption had felt so big, but this milestone was the most thrilling.
We loved our first trip to Korea. I had been to Korea previously to visit a friend and it was just as beautiful as I remembered. My husband and his parents soaked in the amazing city of Seoul.
Before traveling, we had prepared ourselves for the worst when it came to meeting our son, and assumed he wouldn’t want anything to do with us. We were on cloud nine when we got a little boy running in yelling “Omma! Appa! (Mommy! Daddy!),” hugging us and sitting in our laps! We loved meeting his wonderful foster family, and they took preparing him for our home very seriously, showing him our family picture every day. You could tell!
On May 16, when we met with the judge, he was so kind to us. He told us that he had reviewed our homestudy and could see that we were very competent parents. He asked us some basic questions and then stated he would approve our family. Tears of joy sprung to our eyes!
For the second trip to Korea, I traveled alone. Our amazing in-country Korean friends were ready to help me every day in Seoul. When I went to pick up our son, I wondered how sad he would be. The foster family showered us with amazing gifts and gave us large photo books and a journal she had filled out for Eli. She loved him so much but was ready to help him transition to our family. This brave woman blinked back her tears and sent him my way with a smile on her sweet face. He came to me with no problem. He rode in the taxi with me to the hotel with no problem and went swimming with me joyfully. As the sun went down, I worried for him. Would he be okay? He was happy! When the sun came up, I worried again how he would feel, but he woke up giggling and rubbing my face. It finally dawned on me after a few days that the foster family had done such an amazing job preparing him for us that it was almost like our son didn’t know that he didn’t know us! I thought back to her telling us how after our first visit with him, she had taped a picture of us with him together on their apartment wall.
When we arrived home, Eli was excited about his new parents and his new 3-year-old sister. He enjoyed meeting people and liked going places. However, he stayed close to mom and always did what his sister wanted.
When month two came around, Eli had developed more confidence — a good thing, but at times this confidence presented itself as disobedience. Our home quickly transitioned into a state of chaos. On top of grieving, his brain was also doing a lot of work to switch languages, leaving him tired and grumpy.
Month three brought no signs of change in behavior, but his English vocabulary was developing rapidly. I signed to him as well as spoke. He was able to catch the words better when they were paired with a sign. He quickly picked up many signs and would attempt to voice the words too. Because he was giving me the sign with the voice, I was able to piece together what he was trying to tell me, which gave him positive communication experiences and encouraged him to speak more.
And just when we were sure we would pull out all our hair, our children decided to start playing together as friends. This change seemed to happen overnight. They now set up school together with stuffed animals, “hike” in our backyard, and trace each other on the sidewalk with chalk. Our son just seems more settled and is also quicker to obey. Not every moment is perfect, but we are seeing a lot of positive change.
As for Eli’s special need, when he turns 3, we will schedule an echocardiogram to see if the small hole in his heart has closed. We continue to monitor his development in other areas. Eli seems to be progressing very well physically, cognitively and socially. He enjoys being part of his soccer team, going to gymnastics and being an active little boy. We see him reach new milestones all the time and enjoy cheering him on.
We don’t know what month four and five will be like, but for now, our family is settling into a more comfortable routine. A family that is growing together and loving each other more with each day. We are very thankful for our son and the blessing he is.
Audra and Kyle Walsh | College Station, Texas